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TIKR LED watch animates your wrist.

Sam says: Having LEDs all around the wrist is a big dream. It’s cool and makes you wanna show off! TIKR is one way to do it.

It’s basically a watch with a rigid case and soft straps with the only differences that
a) both elements are smoothly connected, making it look like a bracelet,
b) the strap areas contain LEDs and
c) they also contain magnets.

I tried to imagine a technically not too challenging bracelet with a multifunctional display. The most challenging part is not the technology here, it is the flexibility and durability.

There are 60 LEDs arranged in three columns. I took the legendary PIMP watch as example and I didn’t want to have more LEDs. Three LED columns work fine because I am using a 3×3 pixel font to let the bracelet tell time, date and text.

Time can also be told in a 12-5-9 mode. There are indicators for groups of 3 LEDs to ease up counting.

Lying down closed, TIKR makes a cool alarm clock.

The most impressing part is the possibility to play animations all around the wrist. This would make you look like a boss in the club! Or in the subway, or in the supermarket… A USB rechargeable battery seems reasonable. I would recommend a bluetooth connection to the wearer’s smartphone. This makes adding own text and animations simple. Further bluetooth functions are possible then. Magnets in the last inches of the bracelet make it close easily and let it be variable all the time. The bracelet itself has a neutral shape.

It can look sci-fi or kawaii, depending on the color scheme.
Tik tok, TIKR rocks.

47 thoughts on “TIKR LED watch animates your wrist.”

pros
– of course the colors
– i like the one animation when the letter type scrolls the time
– MAGNETIC BAND!
-the white looks amazing

cons(stuff to work one)
-if your going to make it bluetooth, why not go ahead and make all three leds on all the bars?
-PLEASE make sure that with this strap, that you either fade out the underside or do something to wear it doesnt stick into you wrist when it doubles up
-please make usb rechargable

Thank you for the comment! *Grabs transparent umbrella* I had OLEDs in mind and also FOLEDs and some other things. I kept it just “LEDs”, starting with the traditional thing, welcoming anything cheaper/efficient/effective.

Do you mean all three LED colors on all three bars? I was a bit shy to make this but if it can be done at a reasonable price, yes please.

Oh I an suggesting neodymium magnets here. Once you have a stable square of four magnets, you need some force to open the bracelet. In theory that is. Those magnets are really strong but still not at strong as a traditional belt strap that rather rips your arm off when a car comes by…

The Red Green Yellow one looks AWESOME! like the old tokyoflash :), one recomendation though, I personally think that you should change it from bluetooth to direct wire to your computer so you can set it, so you can edit it while it charges 🙂

Interesting, how these colors work right? I took this equalizer theme because of its retro-charme. Worked! I like the idea about the wire connection. If bluetooth causes more costs than usage, it can go. I just like the idea of editing it on the go since “everyone” has a smartphone these days.

Wonderful, Sam. I think this could be hugely popular. I support this design 100%, as long as the materials used represent the high quality of Tokyoflash (and not the typical slap bracelet). If necessary, I’d go with higher quality materials instead of the Bluetooth (which is nice, but not absolutely necessary).

Oh the materials are also a magical field for me. There has to be done some research for a durable and flexible material. You mention a good point about investing the money in the quality instead of the quantity. I agree with you and keep dreaming 🙂

Well, that’s certainly very eye-catching Sam! Being the shy retiring type that I am, 🙂 this would probably be a bit too much for me. 😀 I can see lots of people wearing it though. I like the name. Kinda cute. 🙂 I wish it were USB rechargeable like someone else has already said. The graphics are amazing as usual so I’ll give it 5* and yes cos I would probably buy it for someone else. Good luck with it.

Thank you Lloyd for the honest words! Yeah, this isn’t for everyone, but it’s cool that you see potential. About the name, I borrowed the idea from Motorola RAZR and applied it on the word “ticker”. I chose that because of these news tickers and because tik tok, it’s a time telling device. USB it should be indeed. Practical and compact energy management 🙂 Thank you for the rating too!

I love all Watches Sam, after this is a difficult choice between one model or another. I am always impressed by the achievement of the drawings.
There is a small question, is that the magnetic closure, will be effective enough?
5 stars and a big Yes!

The effectiveness of the bracelet has to be researched. I have some other ideas in my mind, but this one seemed to be the most consequent one, in terms of design. I wonder what Tokyoflash thinks… if it’s too utopic or an interesting combination of well known components.

I have had similar dreams of fully illuminated watches that perfectly suite my back to the future 2 trainers and hoverboard! lol
I love the look of this and as per usual the presentation is epic, the animations really make it stand out.
The time telling is clear and simple.
There is two issue I see with this design, the first is viability, can it be made? if so will it be affordable? if so will the battery life be good enough etc etc. I think that this is only a matter of time, the second issue is that if it is viable and a wrap around display is possible then I would be sorely tempted by “Kanji Flow” one of my all time favorit designs by Sam! I would happily have either of these two. If it can be done I will be one of the first to buy one! I support this 100% 10stars/Yes! Best of Luck Sam! 😀

Yeah the energy 😉 That’s why I took “only” 60 LEDs and made it as effective as possible with them. 60 LEDs were what the PIMP watch could handle back then. I just hope the energy management developped. Especially because one would be tempted to play with the display all day long. The Kisai Seven has 32, if my counting skills don’t fool me. Makes me dream… Hm Kanji Flow 360? Thats a very nice dream.

I think I made a good starting point for speculations and researches. Let’s see where this goes.

Very well Sam. I like how you manage to realise some people’s dream to have LEDs along wrist– in realistic way. Dam don’t hate me if I’m telling you I also have a design with magnetic strap 😉 but fine, I’m buying this for the sake of investigating how it made. My suggestion, the LEDs tube should be smoked like in Seven. Too much blinking and colourful LEDs would make it looks like toy, consider thinner tube or make the three tubes more closer to each other— I would give you 10*, but yes, now you get 5*. Don’t worry, many like this as it is now, though.

Hehe, the magnetism is just a small part of the concept, no worries. The smoked LED tubes are a good hint. I actually did that, but didn’t want to blur out the LEDs too much.

Now to the point about thinner tubes or closer to each other ones. The big rule here is using a square grid in order to have a proper display font srcoll horizontally or vertically. Thinner tubes would favor the horizontality. Closer tubes would mean more LEDs since this decision would result in a more dense grid (closer to each other LEDs in both dimensions) There are 60 LEDs up there – I assumed that as above average but doable. If a more dense array is feasable/affordable, then it should be done imediately! I know about the toy look, that’s easy to slide into when not watching out. I suggest multicolor and unicolor bracelets for the different tastes. Some like to bling bling, some like a more reserved coolness.

Hey Stephen, so you are the buddy of Brandon who passed the idea along? Thanks for that!! We haven’t been introduced to each other yet, nice to read you 😀 I’m glad this pleases cause I mixed in some of my own sketches to make this project come true. Now let’s cross fingers 🙂

Haven’t been very active in the comments section on the blog lately, but I have to chime in on this.

This is freaking awesome. Give it the same battery as the seven so that it auto pulses, stays on, or pops on from time to time and it’s a go. You could display any information you want to, text messages, stock quotes, you name it.

Custom color settings on the LEDs would round out this idea nicely. Rainbow puke indeed.

Aaah finally, great design Samukun!!
[Mein Lehrer wuerde sagen, 2 Doofe 1 Gedanken ^_^]
I really hope they will pick this one up! It looks great – the shape, buttons on top, the color.

Since I’ve bought the “Fire” I’ve always wondered ‘why not go all the way around the wrist?’ (Actually 240º leaving the rest for a secure locking mechanism, additional battery slots or a tiny vibration motor)
I like the multi-colored option as it provides the ability to assign a color to a time dimension… (it is easier to tell the time regardless of the position of the watch)
Instead of the magnets, I would opt for a locking mechanism that would allow the watch to stay around the wrist (and not fall) just in case the straps are unexpectedly pull apart. I would also avoid the magnets because I would need to take the watch off at work

I sketched for a special butterfly clasp for this watch – this would be safer. And it wouldn’t attract cents and keys when placing the watch somewhere. The trick is, keeping it flexible without loosing the 360° fun. Mhhh, a bracelet like Fire would work too…

Good point about the multicolor time reading. The starting LEDs are always starting at the same position. Maybe this one should be marked stronger so the unicolor ones are easier to read.

This design reminds me of the old barcode we use to sell. it was quite popular. This design is far better of course. The problem is finding a factory willing to try to make this. Most want 10,000 to 20,000 pcs if they are a good company capable of making this. Problem is making it waterproof so has to be 1) Flexible. 2) Waterproof 3) all the LEDs, IC and battery in a Flexible waterproof strap and case. Then there are heat issues. Nicer materials like harder plastics NOT PU (Poly Urethane) require higher heat to mold. Higher than the electronic components can handle. Find a solution around these problems and if we can find a factory that will accept smaller MOQ we would be more than happy to make.

Not saying it isn’t doable, but most likely there will have to be many sacrifices to the design which may hinder sales greatly.

Optical Illusion was an example of only one small point we could not do and that was to use a bright colour LCD. Many people complained over this point even though it is very clear they didn’t want to buy “as the colour looked faded”. The customers have no idea how hard it was to make this watch, took months of research and we used the best LCD manufacturer in the industry, each time telling us it is impossible to make as it requires over 1500 segments. Did you know there is a wire that connects each one of those segments? They can only go through the NON LCD segments, so the gaps between the segments have to accommodate all the 1500 wires throughout the screen. This has never been done before. An engineering feat. In fact the first batch ended up being weaker near the bottom of the screen and they had to reuse another technology to overcome the problem. All in all a nightmare to make.

We are always looking into new factories that can make our designs but now the watch industry is shrinking rapidly and there are less and less factories available to make our designs.

Thank you so much for giving us an insight of your work!!! I really appreciate that.

So many compromises have to be made I guess… I can imagine how hard it is. And although it says “design has no borders” and it’s still a design CHALLENGE, I keep that in mind, knowing, the concepts cannot be translated 1:1. But even then, the result is still something, noone else has done before. And so is the Optical Illusion. I think you did a great job there. But wow, it seems to have been a little torture.

Yes, the “many many LEDs” topic isn’t new. But the “I hold my arm up and entertain the crowd around me” topic is rather new for a time telling device. DaZnogoud (seems to be a german fellow) mentioned your “Fire” watch further above here. Maybe that’s an approach to this concept. A rather rigid bracelet with limited, but sufficient flexibility and a proper base for a safe closing mechanism. There are those LED strips, that use flat LEDs on flexible strips. Those could be used inside and coated transparently to be waterproof. There are ways of wireless energy transfer between battery and LED strips, if not everything can be molten into a single flexible shell of transparent plastic. I’m not sure how efficient magnetic induction would be here for example…

Sometimes I think about how cool it must be to work in your company! But there are also moments when I think, I don’t wanna be stuck in your skin (as we say in Germany). But once one has such a job, one has both sides. I wish I had more technical knowledge so my dreams would be more realistic. I hope the challenge is a driving force for you. And if it doesn’t work at all, we’ll survive it 🙂

That is some very interesting and useful insights indeed.
The balance of knowledge is an interesting thing. Too little knowledge and designs end up utopic and un-feasible, too much knowledge and it can restrict your creativity. Im glad we fans dont have too much or a burdon of too much knowledge but it is useful to have an idea of what is possible.
I agree with Sam, I have often thought that you guys have the best job in the world but then realise that it could be very frustrating fighting with the limitations of technology and production.
We all think you do a great job and appreciate the good work, keep it up! 😉

Thank you everyone. To be honest there isn’t a day that one of you designers don’t pop up in our conversations. I have a great gratitude to all of you who put so much time and effort into these designs. It is really a happy part of owning Tokyoflash Japan. We are discussing ways to get you all more involved and we would like to give more info on the problems we face. Truly it is a very fine line between success and failure in this business these days. We love design and pushing the limits so don’t be afraid to submit crazy designs but just keep in the back of your head that to get this crazy design made may either require a huge investment to get it accomplished or a sacrifice in the design. Furthermore and most importantly, will many people buy it? We HAVE TO listen to the customers demands or we will be gone very quickly.
Regarding the few points Samukun pointed out, “Designs has no borders, but factories do” We can design all we want but from there on try to get it made….and now comes the issues. A lot of frustration and endless fights with engineers. Fire watch was a compromise as well. It was originally curved, but they could not cast the plastic in a curve to release it from the mold. So the top became flat. Then the holes which are oval took a huge amount of fighting with the factory. They said they could only do round and that the press will deform the cut. They did a bunch of trial and error and finally after over a year were able to do it but more than 50% were faulty, so had to produce twice as many and hand inspect each and every item ourselves.
The ridged bracelet idea, there is no one we know who could do this. It would have to be two part injection under part PU injected into a harder plastic with the LEDs and electronics inside. Pretty much impossible…well if money is no problem then we can just tell them AT ANY COST find a way. (If you see something like this out there let us know) Even then I am quite sure they would say CAN”T DO. Clasp is not a problem. Flexible LED strips NOT A PROBLEM. Power not a problem. No need for the expense of wireless energy.
Yes seems like a fun job and I guess it is but like any job there are lots of problems. Designers have to let their feelings go and understand what the customers want, even if it is not as cool. This is the hardest part as a designer. Designers usually are much more forward thinking than the consumer and find it really dissatisfying to make a design that is very mainstream. Tokyoflash Japan is really against following any trend but we have to listen to what our customers desire and can’t go to extremes. We had a lot of really really crazy ideas but never went ahead with them as we knew we would be bombarded with hate emails. So there is that fine line I was talking about.

The more thankful we are for this great opportunity! You’re looking at all these concepts and let’s say 5% are of special interest for you, its still alot of work you do for the fans! (Not only for us but I’d like to make it sound epic) Now that you share these issues with us is very nice and interesting. It feels good to stand in such a contact with you. In architecture we try to use standard components. Anything extravagant costs so much more. TF watches are the acme of extravagant and you make them affordable. I can see the factories are the critical point. You say, the watch industry is shrinking. That makes it even more difficult…

This is the right time to tell my little dream again: Showing an A to Z of a watch concept. Starting with the sketch and the guy who sais “I want it to look like this” then how TF sees it with professional eyes, then how the factory can do it… what issues come up, ending with the final watch and a drooling customer 😉 Maybe it’s not interesting for many people, but if one is interested in design or if one owns at least one TF watch, I think this would be nice to know. Last year I thought a little book would be cool. But a blog about an upcoming watch would work too (if there wouldn’t be the danger of copycats…)

Anyhow, this is GOLD you’re sharing with us here and we see everything a bit clearer now. Thank you!!!

Someone should do a documentry about Tf and the process from initial idea to final product! Would be awesome! You talk a lot of sense Sam (most of the time! lol) So Im sure most of the designers who submit here will be happy to be included in “we”!

Yes we thought about this as well. Do a step by step. We discussed this a while back but think the headaches are too incomprehensible for everyone unless very detailed along the whole process. To give you an example; today we are working on a case and strap. The case factory makes the sample in Acetate to give to the stainless steel strap factory to match the strap to the case. The case was not polished just a matte finish. The strap factory makes the sample to fit the case and start production. Later the case is done in stainless as originally intended and when the strap arrives it doesn’t match the case correctly. Any Idea why??? Well the matte finish ads about 1mm more thickness. No one thought about this but now they don’t match. What do we do? Redo all the straps to fit the case. This is one of many problems that pop up along the way. A book would be a big one and would take someone full-time to write. One day we have time we will try to do a summarized version. Right now need to focus on how to get your designs made!

I am familier with the lip biteing when a sample arrives and something is not as it was intended. Its a stressful time trying to find away around without scrapping product.
Hopefully the satisfaction when a design finally makes it onto the watches page of the website makes up for the trials that preceed it!
I can only support the last sentance! Keep up the sterling work! 😀

Wow thats tough, cause that costs… Trial and error, another trial and succeed. For a book there could be the ideal process text with little footnotes. Like “Then the straps were made using the acetate case as orientation²” Then “²) possible error sources: a)… b)… c)…” Oh yes, writing would be a full time job along the process. Hm…. one year doing journalistic work at a japanese watch company… Demo, watashi no nihongo ha yokunai desu >.<

I didn’t put anything and I’m not sure if I understand but I can say, this watch would have DC from the start and nothing else that has to be converted into it. I can also say, that LED tubes are a bit too rigid for this concept 😉

Last day for this epic concept! I hope TF find away of making this design possible. And if it is not viable hopefully there is another design that uses LEDs in an equally epic way! wink wink! Best of luck Sambo! 😀